Device control policies in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Applies to:

• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 1
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2
• Microsoft Defender for Business

This article describes device control policies, rules, entries, groups, and advanced conditions. Essentially, device control policies define access for a set of devices. The devices that are in scope are determined by a list of included device groups and a list of excluded device groups. A policy applies if the device is in all of the included device groups and none of the excluded device groups. If no policies apply, then the default enforcement is applied.

By default device control is disabled, so access to all types of devices is allowed. To learn more about device control, see Device control in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

Controlling default behavior

When device control is enabled, it's enabled for all device types by default. The default enforcement can also be changed from Allow to Deny. Your security team can also configure the types of devices that device control protects. The following table below illustrates how various combinations of settings change the access control decision.

Is device control enabled?	Default behavior	Device types
No	Access is allowed	- CD/DVD drives - Printers - Removable media devices - Windows portable devices
Yes	(Not specified) Access is allowed	- CD/DVD drives - Printers - Removable media devices - Windows portable devices
Yes	Deny	- CD/DVD drives - Printers - Removable media devices - Windows portable devices
Yes	Deny removable media devices and printers	- Printers and removable media devices (blocked) - CD/DVD drives and Windows portable devices (allowed)

When device types are configured, device control in Defender for Endpoint ignores requests to other device families.

For more information, see the following articles:

• Deploy and manage device control with Intune
• Deploy and manage device control with Group Policy

Policies

To further refine access to devices, device control uses policies. A policy is a set of rules and groups. How rules and groups are defined varies slightly among management experiences and operating systems, as described in the following table.

Management tool	Operating system	How rules and groups are managed
Intune – Device control policy	Windows	Device and printer groups can be managed as reusable settings and included in rules. Not all features are available in the device control policy (see Deploy and manage device control with Microsoft Intune)
Intune – Custom	Windows	Each group/rule is stored as an XML string in custom configuration policy. The OMA-URI contains the GUID of the group/rule. The GUID must be generated.
Group Policy	Windows	The groups and rules are defined in separate XML settings in the Group Policy Object (see Deploy and manage device control with Group Policy).
Intune	Mac	The rules and policies are combined into a single JSON and included in the mobileconfig file that is deployed by using Intune
JAMF	Mac	The rules and policies are combined into a single JSON and configured by using JAMF as the device control policy (see Device Control for macOS)

Rules and groups are identified by Global Unique ID (GUIDs). If device control policies are deployed using a management tool other than Intune, the GUIDs must be generated. You can generate the GUIDs by using PowerShell.

For schema details, see JSON schema for Mac.

Users

Device control policies can be applied to users and/or user groups.

Note

In the articles related to device control, groups of users are referred to as user groups. The term groups refer to groups defined in the device control policy.

Using Intune, on either Mac and Windows, device control policies can be targeted to user groups defined in Entra Id.

On Windows, a user or user group can be a condition on an entry in a policy.

Entries with user or user groups can reference objects from either Entra Id or a local Active Directory.

Best practices for using device control with users and user groups

• To create a rule for an individual user on Windows, create an entry with a Sid condition foreach user in a rule

• To create a rule for a user group on Windows and Intune, either create an entry with a Sid condition for each user group in a [rule] and target the policy to a machine group in Intune or create a rule without conditions and target the policy with Intune to the user group.

• On Mac, use Intune and target the policy to a user group in Entra Id.

Warning

Do not use both user/user group conditions in rules and user group targeting in Intune.

Note

If network connectivity is an issue, use Intune user group targeting or a local Active Directory groups. User/user group conditions that reference Entra Id should only be used in environments that have a reliable connection to Entra Id.

Rules

A rule defines the list of included groups and a list of excluded groups. For the rule to apply, the device must be in all of the included groups and none of the excluded groups. If the device matches the rule, then the entries for that rule are evaluated. An entry defines the action and notification options applied, if the request matches the conditions. If no rules apply or no entries match the request then the default enforcement is applied.

For example, to allow write access for some USB devices, and read access for all other USB devices, use the following policies, groups, and entries with default enforcement set to deny.

Group	Description
All Removable Storage Devices	Removable Storage Devices
Writeable USBs	List of USBs where write access is permitted

Rule	Included Device Groups	Excluded Device Groups	Entry
Read only access for USBs	All Removable storage devices	Writeable USBs	Read Only Access
Write access for USBs	Writeable USBs		Write Access

The name of the rule appears in the portal for reporting and in the toast notification to users, so make sure to give the rules descriptive names.

You can configure rules by editing policies in Intune, using an XML file in Windows, or using a JSON file on Mac. Select each tab for more details.

Intune

The following image depicts configuration settings for a device control policy in Intune:

In the screenshot, the Included ID and Excluded ID are the references to included and excluded reusable settings groups. A policy can have multiple rules.

Intune doesn't honor the ordering of the rules. The rules can be evaluated in any order, so make sure to explicitly exclude groups of devices that aren't in scope for the rule.

XML (Windows)

The following code snippet shows the syntax for a device control policy rule in XML:

<PolicyRule Id="{75a4e33a-5268-4552-bef2-e34dd0c39cb1}">
  <Name>Read Only Access for USBs</Name>
  <IncludedIdList>
      <GroupId>{3f5253e4-0e73-4587-bb9e-bb29a2171694}</GroupId>
  </IncludedIdList>
  <ExcludedIdList>
      <GroupId>{3f5253e4-0e73-4587-bb9e-bb29a2171695}</GroupId>
  </ExcludedIdList>
  <Entry Id="{e3837e60-5e56-43ce-8095-043ccd793eac}">
   ...
  </Entry>
  <Entry Id="{34413b98-8198-4e16-accf-c95c3c775ba3}">
    ...
  </Entry>
</PolicyRule> 

The following table provides more context for the XML code snippet:

Property Name	Description	Options
PolicyRule Id	GUID, a unique ID, represents the policy and is used in reporting and troubleshooting.	You can generate the ID through PowerShell.
Name	String, the name of the policy and displays on the toast based on the policy setting.
IncludedIdList	The groups that the policy applies to. If multiple groups are added, the media must be a member of each group in the list to be included.	The Group ID/GUID must be used at this instance. The following example shows the usage of GroupID: <IncludedIdList> <GroupId> {EAA4CCE5-F6C9-4760-8BAD-FDCC76A2ACA1}</GroupId> </IncludedIdList>
ExcludedIDList	The groups that the policy doesn't apply to. If multiple groups are added, the media must be a member of a group in the list to be excluded.	The Group ID/GUID must be used at this instance.
Entry	One PolicyRule can have multiple entries; each entry with a unique GUID tells device control one restriction.	See Entry properties table below to get details.

JSON (Mac)

The following code snippet shows the syntax for a device control policy rule in JSON for macOS:

{
      "id": "75a4e33a-5268-4552-bef2-e34dd0c39cb1",
      "name": "Read Only Access for USBs",
      "includeGroups": [
        "3f5253e4-0e73-4587-bb9e-bb29a2171694"
      ],
      "includedGroups":[
         "3f5253e4-0e73-4587-bb9e-bb29a2171695"
      ]
      "entries": [
        ...
      ]
    } 

The following table provides more context for the XML code snippet:

Property name	Description	Options
id	GUID, a unique ID, represents the rule and is used in the policy.	New-Guid (Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility) - PowerShell<br/>uuidgen
name	String, name of the policy and displays on the toast based on the policy setting.
includeGroups	The groups that the policy is applied to. If multiple groups are specified, the policy applies to any media in all those groups. If not specified, the rule applies to all devices.	The ID value inside the group must be used in this instance. If multiple groups are in the includeGroups, it's AND. "includeGroups": ["3f082cd3-f701-4c21-9a6a-ed115c28e217"]
excludeGroups	The group that the policy doesn't apply to.	The id value inside the group must be used in this instance. If multiple groups are in the excludeGroups, it's OR.
entries	One rule can have multiple entries; each entry with a unique GUID tells Device Control one restriction.	See entry properties table later in this article to get the details.

Entries

Device control policies define access (called an entry) for a set of devices. Entries define the action and notification options for devices that match the policy and the conditions defined in the entry.

Entry setting	Options
AccessMask	Applies the action only if the access operations match the access mask - The access mask is the bit-wise OR of the access values: 1 - Device Read 2 - Device Write 4 - Device Execute 8 - File Read 16 - File Write 32 - File Execute 64 - Print For example: Device Read, Write, and Execute = 7 (1+2+4) Device Read, Disk Read = 9 (1+8)
Action	Allow Deny AuditAllow AuditDeny
Notification	None (default) An event is generated The user receives notification

Entry evaluation

There are two types of entries: enforcement entries (Allow/Deny) and audit entries (AuditAllow/AuditDeny).

Enforcement entries for a rule are evaluated in order until all of the requested permissions have been matched. If no entries match a rule, then the next rule is evaluated. If no rules match, then the default is applied.

Audit entries

Audit events control the behavior when device control enforces a rule (allow/deny). Device control can display a notification to the end-user. The user gets a notification that contains the name of the device control policy and the name of the device. The notification appears once every hour after initial access is denied.

Device control can also create an event that is available in Advanced Hunting.

Important

There is a limit of 300 events per device per day. Audit entries are processed after the enforcement decision has been made. All corresponding audit entries are evaluated.

Conditions

An entry supports the following optional conditions:

• User/User Group Condition: Applies the action only to the user/user group identified by the SID

Note

For user groups and users that are stored in Microsoft Entra Id, use the object id in the condition. For user groups and users that are stored locally, use the Security Identifier (SID)

Note

On Windows, The SID of the user who's signed in can be retrieved by running the PowerShell command whoami /user.

• Machine Condition: Applies the action only to the device/group identified by the SID
• Parameters Condition: Applies the action only if the parameters match (See Advanced Conditions)

Entries can be further scoped to specific users and devices. For example, allow read access to these USBs for this user only on this device.

Policy	Included Device Groups	Excluded Device Groups	Entry(ies)
Read only access for USBs	All Removable storage devices	Writeable USBs	Read Only Access
Write access for USBs	Writeable USBs		Write Access for User 1 Write Access for User 2 on Device Group A

All of the conditions in the entry must be true for the action to be applied.

You can configure entries using Intune, an XML file in Windows, or a JSON file on Mac. Select each tab for more details.

Intune

In Intune, the Access mask field has options, such as:

• Read (Disk Level Read = 1)
• Write (Disk Level Write = 2)
• Execute (Disk Level Execute = 4)
• Print (Print = 64).

Not all features are shown in the Intune user interface. For more information, see Deploy and manage device control with Intune.

XML (Windows)

The following code snippet shows the syntax for a device control entry in XML:

  <Entry Id="{e3837e60-5e56-43ce-8095-043ccd793eac}">
    <Type>Allow</Type>
    <Options>0</Options>
    <AccessMask>1</AccessMask>
  </Entry> 

The following table provides more context for the XML code snippet:

Property name	Description	Option
Entry Id	GUID, a unique ID, represents the entry and is used in reporting and troubleshooting.	You can generate the GUID by using PowerShell.
Type	Defines the action for the removable storage groups in IncludedIDList. - Allow - Deny - AuditAllowed: Defines notification and event when access is allowed - AuditDenied: Defines notification and event when access is denied; works together with a Deny entry. When there are conflict types for the same media, the system applies the first one in the policy. An example of a conflict type is Allow and Deny.	- Allow - Deny - AuditAllowed - AuditDenied
Option	If type is Allow	- 0: nothing - 4: disable AuditAllowed and AuditDenied for this entry. If Allow occurs and the AuditAllowed setting is configured, events aren't generated.
Option	If type is Deny	- 0: nothing - 4: disable AuditDenied for this Entry. If Block occurs and the AuditDenied is setting configured, the system doesn't show notifications.
Option	If type is AuditAllowed	- 0: nothing - 1: nothing - 2: send event
Option	If type is AuditDenied	- 0: nothing - 1: show notification - 2: send event - 3: show notification and send event
AccessMask	Defines the access	See the following section Understand mask access
Sid	Local user SID or user SID group, or the SID of the Microsoft Entra object or the Object ID. It defines whether to apply this policy over a specific user or user group. One entry can have a maximum of one SID and an entry without any SID means to apply the policy over the device.	SID
ComputerSid	Local computer SID or computer SID group, or the SID of the Microsoft Entra object or the Object Id. It defines whether to apply this policy over a specific device or device group. One entry can have a maximum of one ComputerSID and an entry without any ComputerSID means to apply the policy over the device. If you want to apply an Entry to a specific user and specific device, add both SID and ComputerSID into the same Entry.	SID
Parameters	Condition for an entry, such as network condition.	Can add groups (non-device types) or even put parameters into parameters. For more information, see the advanced conditions section (in this article).

Understand mask access (Windows)

Device control applies an access mask to determine if the request matches the entry. The following actions are available on CdRomDevices, RemovableMediaDevices, and WpdDevices:

Access	Mask
Disk level read	1
Disk level write	2
Disk level execute	4
File system read	8
File system write	16
File system execute	32

The following actions are available on PrinterDevices:

• Access: Print
• Mask: 64

You can have multiple access settings by performing a binary OR operation. Here's an example:

• The AccessMask for Read and Write and Execute is 7
• The AccessMask for Read and Write is 3

JSON (Mac)

The following code snippet shows the syntax for a device control entry in JSON for macOS:

{
          "$type": "generic",
          "id": "e3837e60-5e56-43ce-8095-043ccd793eac",
          "enforcement": {
            "$type": "allow"
          },
          "access": [
            "generic_read"
          ]
} 

The following table provides more context for the JSON code snippet:

Property name	Description	Options
id	GUID, a unique ID, represents the entry and is used in reporting and troubleshooting.	You can generate the ID by using PowerShell.
enforcement $type	Defines the action for the removable storage groups in includedGroups. - allow - deny - auditAllow: Defines notification and event when access is allowed - AuditDeny: Defines notification and event when access is denied; has to work together with the Deny entry. When there are conflict types for the same media, the system applies the first one in the policy. An example of a conflict type is Allow and Deny.	The enforcement $type attribute can be one of the following values: - allow - deny - auditAllow - auditDeny
enforcement $options	If enforcement $type is allow	disable_audit_allow: If Allow occurs and the auditAllow is setting configured, the system doesn't send events.
enforcement $options	If enforcement $type is deny	disable_audit_deny: If Block happens and the auditDeny is setting configured, the system doesn't show notifications or send events.
enforcement $options	If enforcement $type is auditAllow	send_event: Sends telemetry
enforcement $options	If enforcement $type is auditDeny	- send_event: Sends telemetry - show_notification: Displays block message to user
$type	The type of entry. The type determines the operations that can be protected by device control	The $type attributes can be any of the following values: - removableMedia - appleDevice - PortableDevice - bluetoothDevice
access	A list of operations that this entry grants	See the next section, "Understand access on Mac"

Understand access (Mac)

There are two kinds of access for an entry: generic and device type specific.

• Generic access options include generic_read, generic_write, and generic_execute.
• Device type specific access provides a finer granularity of control, because the device type specific access values are included in the generic access types.

The following table describes the device type specific access and how they map to the generic access types.

Device Type ($type)	Device Type Specific Access	Description	Read	Write	Execute
appleDevice	backup_device		X
appleDevice	update_device			X
appleDevice	download_photos_from_device	download photo(s) from the specific iOS device to local device	X
appleDevice	download_files_from_device	download file(s) from the specific iOS device to local device	X
appleDevice	sync_content_to_device	sync content from local device to specific iOS device		X
portableDevice	download_files_from_device	X
portableDevice	send_files_to_device			X
portableDevice	download_photos_from_device		X
portableDevice	debug	ADB tool control			X
removableMedia	read		X
removableMedia	write			X
removableMedia	execute				X
bluetoothDevice	download_files_from_device		X
bluetoothDevice	send_files_to_device			X

Groups

Groups define criteria for filtering objects by their properties. The object is assigned to the group if its properties match the properties defined for the group.

Note

Groups in this section do not refer to user groups.

For example:

• Allowed USBs are all the devices that match any of these manufacturers
• Lost USBs are all the devices that match any of these serial numbers
• Allowed printers are all the devices that match any of these VID/PID

The properties can be matched in four ways: MatchAll, MatchAny, MatchExcludeAll, and MatchExcludeAny

• MatchAll: The properties are an "And" relationship; for example, if administrator puts DeviceID and InstancePathID, for every connected USB, the system checks to see whether the USB meets both values.
• MatchAny: The properties are an "Or" relationship; for example, if administrator puts DeviceID and InstancePathID, for every connected USB, the system enforces as long as the USB has either an identical DeviceID or InstanceID value.
• MatchExcludeAll: The properties are an "And" relationship, any items that do NOT meet are covered. For example, if administrator puts DeviceID and InstancePathID and uses MatchExcludeAll, for every connected USB, system enforces as long as the USB doesn't have both identical DeviceID and InstanceID value.
• MatchExcludeAny: The properties are an "Or" relationship, any items that do NOT meet are covered. For example, if administrator puts DeviceID and InstancePathID and uses MatchExcludeAny, for every connected USB, system enforces as long as the USB doesn't have either an identical DeviceID or InstanceID value.

Groups are used two ways: to select devices for inclusion/exclusion in rules, and to filter access for advanced conditions. This table summarizes the group types and how they're used.

Type	Description	O/S	Include/Exclude Rules	Advanced conditions
Device (default)	Filter devices and printers	Windows/Mac	X
Network	Filter network conditions	Windows		X
VPN Connection	Filter VPN conditions	Windows		X
File	Filter file properties	Windows		X
Print Job	Filter properties of the file being printed	Windows		X

The devices that are in scope for the policy determined by a list of included groups and a list of excluded groups. A rule applies if the device is in all of the included groups and none of the excluded groups. Groups can be composed from the properties of devices. The following properties can be used:

Property	Description	Windows devices	Mac devices	Printers
FriendlyNameId	The friendly name in Windows Device Manager	Y	N	Y
PrimaryId	The type of the device	Y	Y	Y
VID_PID	Vendor ID is the four-digit vendor code that the USB committee assigns to the vendor. Product ID is the four-digit product code that the vendor assigns to the device. Wildcards are supported. For example, 0751_55E0	Y	N	Y
PrinterConnectionId	The type of printer connection: - USB: A printer connected through USB port of a computer. - Network: A network printer is a printer that is accessible by network connection, making it usable by other computers connected to the network. - Corporate: A corporate printer is a print queue shared through on-premise Windows Print Server. - Universal: Universal Print is a modern print solution that organizations can use to manage their print infrastructure through cloud services from Microsoft. What is Universal Print? - Universal Print | Microsoft Docs - File: 'Microsoft Print to PDF' and 'Microsoft XPS Document Writer' or other printers using a FILE: or PORTPROMPT: port - Custom: printer that is not connecting through Microsoft print port - Local: printer not any of above type, e.g. print through RDP or redirect printers	N	N	Y
BusId	Information about the device (for more information, see the sections that follow this table)	Y	N	N
DeviceId	Information about the device (for more information, see the sections that follow this table)	Y	N	N
HardwareId	Information about the device (for more information, see the sections that follow this table)	Y	N	N
InstancePathId	Information about the device (for more information, see the sections that follow this table)	Y	N	N
SerialNumberId	Information about the device (for more information, see the sections that follow this table)	Y	Y	N
PID	Product ID is the four-digit product code that the vendor assigns to the device	Y	Y	N
VID	Vendor ID is the four-digit vendor code that the USB committee assigns to the vendor.	Y	Y	N
DeviceEncryptionStateId	(Preview) The BitLocker encryption state of a device. Valid values are BitlockerEncrypted or Plain	Y	N	N
APFS Encrypted	If the device is APFS encrypted	N	Y	N

Using Windows Device Manager to determine device properties

For Windows devices, you can use Device Manager to understand the properties of devices.

1. Open Device Manager, locate the device, right-click on Properties, and then select the Details tab.

2. In the Property list, select Device instance path.

   The value shown for device instance path is the InstancePathId, but it also contains other properties:

   • USB\VID_090C&PID_1000\FBH1111183300721
   • {BusId}\{DeviceId}\{SerialNumberId}

   The properties in the device manager map to device control as shown in the following table:

   Device Manager	Device Control
   Hardware Ids	HardwareId
   Friendly name	FriendlyNameId
   Parent	VID_PID
   DeviceInstancePath	InstancePathId

Using reports and advanced hunting to determine properties of devices

Device properties have slightly different labels in advanced hunting. The table below maps the labels in the portal to the propertyId in a device control policy.

Microsoft Defender Portal property	Device control property Id
Media name	FriendlyNameId
Vendor Id	HardwareId
DeviceId	InstancePathId
Serial Number	SerialNumberId

Note

Make sure that the object selected has the correct Media Class for the policy. In general, for removable storage, use Class Name == USB.

Configure groups in Intune, XML in Windows, or JSON on Mac

You can configure groups in Intune, by using an XML file for Windows, or by using a JSON file on Mac. Select each tab for more details.

Note

The Group Id in XML and id in JSON is used to identify the group within device control. Its not a reference to any other such as a user group in Entra Id.

Intune

Reusable settings in Intune map to device groups. You can configure reusable settings in Intune.

There are two types of groups: Printer Device and Removable Storage. The following table lists the properties for these groups.

Group type	Properties
Printer device	- FriendlyNameId - PrimaryId - PrinterConnectionId - VID_PID
Removable storage	- BusId - DeviceId - FriendlyNameId - HardwareId - InstancePathId - PID - PrimaryId - SerialNumberId - VID - VID_PID

XML (Windows)

The following XML snippet shows the syntax for matching groups:

<Group Id="{3f5253e4-0e73-4587-bb9e-bb29a2171694}">
  <MatchType>MatchAny</MatchType>
  <DescriptorIdList>
   ...
  </DescriptorIdList>
</Group> 

The following table describes properties for groups.

Property Name	Description	Options
Group Id	GUID, a unique ID, represents the group and to be used in the policy.	You can generate the ID through PowerShell.
Type	The type of the group	Device (Default) The other types of groups (File, VPNConnection, PrintJob, Network) can be used for advanced conditions. The type for groups used with rules is Device, which is the default.
MatchType	The matching algorithm used	- MatchAny - MatchAll - MatchExcludeAll - MatchExcludeAny
DescriptionIdList	The list of properties evaluated for inclusion in the group	See DescriptionIdList properties (section after this table)

DescriptionIdList properties

The properties described in the following table can be included in the DescriptionIdList:

Property	Description
PrimaryId	Includes RemovableMediaDevices, CdRomDevices, WpdDevices, and PrinterDevices.
InstancePathId	String that uniquely identifies the device in the system, for example, USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_GENERIC&PROD_FLASH_DISK&REV_8.07\8735B611&0. It corresponds to the device instance path in Device Manager in Windows. The number at the end (for example &0) represents the available slot and might change from device to device. For best results, use a wildcard at the end. For example, USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_GENERIC&PROD_FLASH_DISK&REV_8.07\8735B611*.
DeviceId	To transform Device instance path to Device ID format, use Standard USB Identifiers, such as this example: USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_GENERIC&PROD_FLASH_DISK&REV_8.07
HardwareId	String that identifies the device in the system, like USBSTOR\DiskGeneric_Flash_Disk___8.07. It corresponds to the hardware ID in Device Manager in Windows. Keep in mind that HardwareId isn't unique; different devices might share the same value.
FriendlyNameId	String attached to the device, like Generic Flash Disk USB Device. It corresponds to the friendly name in Device Manager in Windows.
BusId	For example, USB, SCSI
SerialNumberId	You can find SerialNumberId from Device instance path in Device Manager in Windows. For example, 03003324080520232521 is SerialNumberId in USBSTOR\DISK&VEN__USB&PROD__SANDISK_3.2GEN1&REV_1.00\03003324080520232521&0
VID_PID	- Vendor ID is the four-digit vendor code that the USB committee assigns to the vendor. - Product ID is the four-digit product code that the vendor assigns to the device. It supports wildcards. - To transform Device instance path to Vendor ID and Product ID format, use Standard USB Identifiers. Here are some examples: 0751_55E0: match this exact VID/PID pair _55E0: match any media with PID=55E0 0751_: match any media with VID=0751
DeviceEncryptionStateId	The BitLocker encryption state - Plain or BitlockerEncrpted

Here are some examples of device group definitions in the device control samples repository:

• Group of devices by Instance Path Id
• Group of devices by VID_PID
• Group of devices by Primary Id

JSON (Mac)

The following JSON snippet shows the syntax for defining groups on Mac:

    {
      "$type": "device",
      "id": "3f5253e4-0e73-4587-bb9e-bb29a2171694",
      "query": {
        "$type": "or",
        "clauses": [
    ...
        ]
      }
    } 

The following table describes properties for groups:

Property	Description	Options
$type	The kind of group	device
id	GUID, a unique ID, represents the group to be used in the policy.	You can generate the ID by using the Windows PowerShell New-Guid cmdlet or the uuidgen command on macOS
name	Friendly name for the group.	string
query	The media coverage under this group	See the query properties tables below for details.

The query supports all, and (same as all), any, or (same as any) types. This is the logic used to combine the properties in the clauses.

The following values are supported as clauses:

Clause $type	Value	Description
primaryId	One of: - apple_devices - removable_media_devices - portable_devices - bluetooth_devices
vendorId	four-digit hexadecimal string	Matches a device's vendor ID
productId	four-digit hexadecimal string	Matches a device's product ID
serialNumber	string	Matches a device's serial number. Doesn't match if the device doesn't have a serial number.
encryption	apfs	Match if a device is apfs-encrypted.
groupId	UUID string	Match if a device is a member of another group. The value represents the UUID of the group to match against. The group must be defined within the policy prior to the clause.

Here's an example query:

"query": {
        "$type": "or",
        "clauses": [
          {
            "$type": "serialNumber",
            "value": "FBH1111183300731"
          }
        ]
      } 

Our example query can be edited to get behavior equivalent to the ExcludedMatchAll and ExcludedMatchAny by using the "not" type, as follows:

"query": {
    "$type":"not",
        "query": {
                    "$type": "or",
                    "clauses": [
                          {
                            "$type": "serialNumber",
                            "value": "FBH1111183300731"
                          }
                    ]
              }

} 

This query matches all devices that don't have the specified serial number.

Advanced conditions

Entries can be further restricted based on parameters. Parameters apply advanced conditions that go beyond the device. Advanced conditions allow for fine-grained control based on Network, VPN Connection, File or Print Job being evaluated.

Note

Advanced conditions are only supported in the XML format.

Network Conditions

The following table describes network group properties:

Property	Description
NameId	The name of the network. Wildcards are supported.
NetworkCategoryId	Valid options are Public, Private, or DomainAuthenticated.
NetworkDomainId	Valid options are NonDomain, Domain, DomainAuthenticated.

These properties are added to the DescriptorIdList of a group of type Network. Here's an example snippet:

<Group Id="{e5f619a7-5c58-4927-90cd-75da2348a30a}" Type="Network" MatchType="MatchAll">
    <DescriptorIdList>
        <NetworkCategoryId>Public</PathId>
        <NetworkDomainId>NonDomain</PathId>
    </DescriptorIdList>
</Group>

The group is then referenced as parameters in the entry, as illustrated in the following snippet:

   <Entry Id="{1ecfdafb-9b7f-4b66-b3c5-f1d872b0961d}">
      <Type>Deny</Type>
      <Options>0</Options>
      <AccessMask>40</AccessMask>
      <Parameters MatchType="MatchAll">
             <Network MatchType="MatchAny">
                   <GroupId>{ e5f619a7-5c58-4927-90cd-75da2348a30a }</GroupId>
            </Network>
      </Parameters>
   </Entry>

VPN Connection Conditions

The following table describes VPN connection conditions:

Name	Description
NameId	The name of the VPN Connection. Wildcards are supported.
VPNConnectionStatusId	Valid values are Connected or Disconnected.
VPNServerAddressId	The string value of VPNServerAddress. Wildcards are supported.
VPNDnsSuffixId	The string value of VPNDnsSuffix. Wildcards are supported.

These properties are added to the DescriptorIdList of a group of type VPNConnection, as shown in the following snippet:

    <Group Id="{d633d17d-d1d1-4c73-aa27-c545c343b6d7}" Type="VPNConnection">
        <Name>Corporate VPN</Name>
        <MatchType>MatchAll</MatchType>
        <DescriptorIdList>
            <NameId>ContosoVPN</NameId>
            <VPNServerAddressId>contosovpn.*.contoso.com</VPNServerAddressId>
            <VPNDnsSuffixId>corp.contoso.com</VPNDnsSuffixId>
            <VPNConnectionStatusId>Connected</VPNConnectionStatusId>
        </DescriptorIdList>
    </Group>

Then the group is then referenced as parameters in an entry, as illustrated in the following snippet:

       <Entry Id="{27c79875-25d2-4765-aec2-cb2d1000613f}">
          <Type>Allow</Type>
          <Options>0</Options>
          <AccessMask>64</AccessMask>
          <Parameters MatchType="MatchAny">
            <VPNConnection>
                    <GroupId>{d633d17d-d1d1-4c73-aa27-c545c343b6d7}</GroupId>
            </VPNConnection>
        </Parameters>
       </Entry>

The group is then referenced as parameters in an entry, as illustrated in the following snippet:

   <Entry Id="{1ecfdafb-9b7f-4b66-b3c5-f1d872b0961d}">
      <Type>Deny</Type>
      <Options>0</Options>
      <AccessMask>40</AccessMask>
      <Parameters MatchType="MatchAll">
             <File MatchType="MatchAny">
                   <GroupId>{ e5f619a7-5c58-4927-90cd-75da2348a30f }</GroupId>
            </File>
      </Parameters>
   </Entry>

Print Job Conditions

The following table describes PrintJob group properties:

Name	Description
PrintOutputFileNameId	The output destination file path for print to file. Wildcards are supported. For example, C:\*\Test.pdf
PrintDocumentNameId	The source file path. Wildcards are supported. This path might not exist. For example, add text to a new file in Notepad, and then print without saving the file.

These properties are added to the DescriptorIdList of a group of type PrintJob, as illustrated in the following snippet:

<Group Id="{e5f619a7-5c58-4927-90cd-75da2348a30b}" Type="PrintJob" MatchType="MatchAny">
    <DescriptorIdList>
        <PrintOutputFileNameId>C:\Documents\*.pdf</PrintOutputFileNameId >
        <PrintDocumentNameId>*.xlsx</PrintDocumentNameId>
<PrintDocumentNameId>*.docx</PrintDocumentNameId>
    </DescriptorIdList>
</Group>

The group is then referenced as parameters in an entry, as illustrated in the following snippet:

   <Entry Id="{1ecfdafb-9b7f-4b66-b3c5-f1d872b0961d}">
      <Type>Deny</Type>
      <Options>0</Options>
      <AccessMask>40</AccessMask>
      <Parameters MatchType="MatchAll">
             <PrintJob MatchType="MatchAny">
                   <GroupId>{e5f619a7-5c58-4927-90cd-75da2348a30b}</GroupId>
            </PrintJob>
      </Parameters>
   </Entry>

Next steps

• View device control events and information in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
• Deploy and manage device control in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint with Microsoft Intune
• Deploy and manage device control in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint using Group Policy
• Device Control for macOS